What to expect in 20201 when it comes to layoffs?
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Expect living on your parents' couch in the basement, and asking what's for supper. Go US corporation!
The structure of the US empire is profit. Employees are necessary evils. The corporations answers to shareholders/wall street/numbers/quarterly earnings. Nothing will change except new clueless faced wage slave/stockholm syndromed employees ready to hamster wheel for their owners.
The other reason that they won't say no to wall street is because they own piles of stock options that have gone up in value over 100% in the past several years as a result of this very practice. Every public company on the planet is expected to grow revenues and cut operating costs year over year. The problem is that if you are not responsible for sales, you are responsible for cutting costs, and the biggest single cost in a service organization is labor. Sadly most managers don't have the intelligence nor the courage to cut costs by inventing more efficient processes or being an actual mentor to their employees and helping them grow into more motivated and valuable individuals.
Work for a not for profit company or a private company and the risk is far less. Of course, Covid creates issues but unless you are awful employee, very rare to see terminations unless the company is in financial trouble. The deal with Optum and other public company is not if they are making profits but enough profits. If they made 20 million in profits but Wallstreet wants 22 million, then salaries of 2 million must go. A private company would not rush to terminate employees.
Why does not the CEO or Senior VP say no to Wallstreet? Because they would be fired and replaced with someone that will terminate employees. If you get to the top ladder of a public company, be prepared to fire, reduce benefits, anything to hit earnings. And if you made 24 million versus 22 million, then next year you need to make 26 million. If it only going to be 24 million, you need to cut 2 million. Yes, you made more money, but you have to make even more money. This will never stop unless senior leaders resign and make it known. I would work day and night for Tim Bray.
Tim Bray, a top engineer and vice-president at Amazon, announced on Monday he is resigning “in dismay” over the company’s firing of employee activists who criticized working conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Bray called the firings of organizers at the company “chickenshit”, and said they were “designed to create a climate of fear”. In resigning, Bray has become the highest-ranking corporate employee at Amazon to publicly speak out about worker conditions.
Trying to get another employee job, feverishly posting one's job experiences to get work, filing for unemployment, fighting with spouse/family, trying to get "health" "care", paying for rent, mortgage, fuel bills, food, etc...that's what happens in American corporations when you're terminated. It's awful, yet they vote with their feet. Cognitive dissonance.